Things have changed in Berk, the fantasy Viking village of DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon series. Dragons and Vikings, once mortal enemies, now must learn to live together in peace. Dragons: Rise of Berk lets players manage dragon-Viking relations first hand, and here are some tips for keeping everyone happy and prosperous.

Reign of Fire

Obviously, dragons play a pretty big role in a game named after them, and they’re good for much more than just flying and fire-breathing. Here's how to put them to work.

To get started, level up Toothless by feeding him tasty fish. Once he’s strong enough, you can then send him out to search nearby islands for more dragons eggs. Get a Whispering Death on Bashem or maybe a Scauldron on Unlandable Cove.

After hatching an egg, place your new baby dragon wherever there is room and feed them until they level up and reach adult size. You can also train dragons by sending them to the academy for a few minutes.

Adult dragons can independently perform many tasks around Berk, and as they grow they learn new skills such as how to gather resources like fish and lumber. Having more dragons at your command also increases Berk’s ability to expand.

As you progress, tons of new dragon breeds become available to search for, including some limited time offers. Also, by helping characters from the movies their personal dragons, like Astrid’s Stormfly, can be yours.

Village People

Dragons are fun, but building up Berk is the real main goal.

You’ll receive a steady stream of tasks to complete from finding more dragons to upgrading Berk’s resource storage.

Fish and lumber are the main forms of currency, and you’ll be spending both frequently. While dragons take care of most of the heavy lifting you can get more wood by chopping down trees, which also clears up space for more buildings.

By rebuilding houses, you’ll gain access to those characters’ missions and storylines that can take you beyond Berk’s borders.

By upgrading your Mead Hall and building more huts, more Vikings can come live in Berk and the village can expand. Having more Vikings lets you clear away and build on more distant parts of the map. As your community continues to grow, you may even have to colonize other nearby landmasses.

Other buildings can be upgraded too, like the fishery, saw mill, and dragon academy, increasing your overall productivity.

Easy Dragon Rider

There’s not much more to Dragons: Rise of Berk beyond just being patient, but here are a few tips to keep Berk running smoothly and the dragons flying high.

Tasks that need wood and tasks that need fish are pretty evenly split. And usually a mission related to one will require the other - like spending fish to feed Vikings improving the saw mill and vice versa. So try to alternate between missions like that and keep your economy balanced.

Toothless always collects three things from a flight, but you can only keep them all if you buy the two extra bags. It’s especially soul-crushing because the game shows you what you’re forfeiting. Usually it’s just more resources, but sometimes it’s that dragon egg you were searching for.

Dragons have to rest too, so you can always call them back from their tasks by blowing the horn.

You can rearrange buildings after they’ve been put down, so if you need more space, you don’t necessarily have to do more costly deforestation.

Rocks are tough to remove, but they always reward you with runes, the most precious currency in the game.